Aetna vs. Baycare could mean no care.

Update 12/25/08

The St. Pete Times is reporting a deal has been struck between the two companies. A nice Christmas present to all the members; giving them back the care that they had.

From the Times

December 24, 2008

Aetna, Baycare hospitals settle contract dispute

About 300,000 Tampa Bay area residents with Aetna health insurance got an early Christmas present this week: The company settled its contract dispute with BayCare Health Systems.

The BayCare system, which includes such popular hospitals as Morton Plant, Mease, St. Anthony’s and St. Joseph’s, had a three-year contract to serve Aetna’s members that was due to expire Dec. 31. As is often the case, negotiations on a new deal pushed the deadline, with BayCare wanting more money to treat patients than Aetna was offering, and Aetna wanting to pay less than BayCare thought appropriate.

Full Story Here

Update 12/19/08

The company I work for received this letter from Baycare describing the negotiations with Aetna and the lack of progress. To view the letter visit the link below

Letter to my employer

Please feel free to comment and share your opinions on the Baycare – Aetna battle. There are over 400,000 people that this effects and some of you must have something to say.

Original post

A battle of 2 local giants is going on right now that could mean no local care for over 400,000 Pinellas County insured. Many local companies and even the Pinellas County School System stand to lose the coverage that they signed up for and that Aetna contracted to provide.

Aetna, one of the major insurers in the area have canceled their contract with Baycare. A great New Years Day present.  As of January 1st, 2009 these  Baycare Hospitals are out and out of plan if you go to one.

• St. Anthony’s Hospital
• St. Joseph’s Hospital
• South Florida Baptist Hospital
• St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital
• Morton Plant
• North Bay Hospital Morton Plant Hospital
• Mease Countryside Hospital
• Mease Dunedin Hospital

Times are bad enough and if the 2 sides don’t man up and hammer out a deal, everyone loses. Aetna will lose many companies and members on renewal (maybe that is what they want), Baycare will lose revenue (perhaps causing layoffs), doctors will lose patients (again the losing revenue thing) and most of we will lose access to some of the best health care in the county and this will affect all of Pinellas county and its health care.

Aetna had this to say in the notice to members.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please call the Member Services telephone number listed on your Aetna ID card if you questions.

Baycare sent this out to members

Baycare’s letter to Aetna members

How do you feel about this and how would it affect you?

Join the discussion at  MyFox TampaBay

Please voice your opinion, share this, facebook it, digg it. Let them know, do not sit idle. You are a mouse click away from voicing your opinion. Use our comment form below and speak out.

Update – 12/5/08

In today’s email I received this to add insult to injury entitled “get ready for the new year”

Get Ready is right

Oldsmar Report on the Annexation of East Lake Area

If you live in the affected area I would read this document as it contains some interesting provisions to watch out for.  This is the 1st one and it could amount to a substantial bill for East lake Woodland residents. The key statement is brought into compliance. I would ask “who brings it and who pays for it?” If you live in a neighborhood that has 40 homes and the bill is $100,000; do the math.

On the other hand if I was living in the current boundaries of Oldsmar I  would ask my Mayor why are you wasting our tax dollars for another attempt to annex an area that does not want to be called Oldsmar. I would go to the next City Council meeting and ask if there were better ways to spend tax dollars.

On to roads.

STREETS AND ROADS

Currently the County controls four main roadways in the ELA area: East Lake Woodlands Parkway,
Woodlands Parkway, Woodlands Boulevard and Sunflower Drive. These County roads are leased to
the Community Association and the Community Association maintains these roadways. Local streets
within individual neighborhoods are private and maintenance is currently the responsibility of the
individual HOA’s. Sidewalks are installed on both sides of the main thoroughfares: East Lake
Woodlands Parkway, Woodlands Parkway and Woodlands Boulevard and on both sides of the
private neighborhood streets. The roadways are paved to provide for two-way traffic and include
curbs and gutters and are adequately constructed to handle its low volume neighborhood usage. In
the event this area is annexed by the City, the four main roads currently owned by the County and
maintained by the Community Association would be maintained by the City. The City has the ability
to provide maintenance to these major roads to include the sidewalks and drainage structures on the
four main roads. All private roads that are currently the responsibility of the individual Homeowner
Associations would continue to be maintained by their respective HOA’s. Construction and upkeep of
the roads would then be funded through municipal taxes.
The City provides all traffic regulation devices such as signposts and street and stop signs. Street
and stop signs in ELA area were determined to be in acceptable quantities and condition at the time
of this study. Any area currently lacking sufficient traffic signs, traffic signals and street lighting, will
be brought into compliance with acceptable standards for all traffic regulatory devices and
streetlights. An adequate streetlight program currently exists in cooperation with Florida Power
Corporation and Tampa Electric. The regulatory signs would be handled through the City’s Public
Works Department.

Lockheed Martin is included if ELW goes

The property is accessed by Tampa Road and East Lake Road. The annexation area includes 74.0
acres owned by Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems which shares its southern, eastern and
northern boundaries with the City and its western boundary with the East Lake Woodlands
development. The land use and parcel information was obtained from the Pinellas Countywide Future
Land Use Map and the Pinellas County Property Appraiser data and maps. The legal description
provided delineates the entire perimeter of the proposed annexation area in accordance with Chapter
171, F.S. The proposed annexation area is located just north and west of the previously designated
Oldsmar Planning Area.

Link to  the document can be found here

Download it here

Remember that if it goes to vote, a majority wins. If you are against this you must speak up and make your vote count.

Here is another city document that was to be discussed at the last council meeting.

Update – Nov 7, 2008

Read the latest report in the ELW Heron by Bryan Kutchins, Chairman of the ELWCA Annexation Committee

Read it here

Should East Lake be annexed by Oldsmar

and what is the real reason Oldsmar wants it? Is it to improve the quality of life for those the area it annex’s or is it to put the Shoppes of Boot Ranch, East Lake Woodlands shopping centers and ultimately Lockheed Martin on its tax roles. The mayor does not mention Lockheed Martin, but they will be surrounded if the deal goes through and may not have a choice. This is a big prize for the Mayor and Oldsmar if the residents agree.

Is there a need for Oldsmar to extend its reach to the Lake Tarpon Canal? What will happen to the taxes of the properties involved and if they are raised by Oldsmar will they impact our prices at the checkout counters. Most, if not all of us living in Woodland Hills shop at the stores that would be annexed and costs get passed on.  Also, if annexed, what would the impact be to local real estate prices be. What would the impact be to residents if Oldsmar’s industrial tax base shrinks?

Are they worried that Nielsen is outsourcing and they need a way to replace the revenue? The Times ran this not too long ago and it was before the annexation announcement.

Layoffs at Nielsen concern Oldsmar residents

There are may questions to be answered and hopefully the residents impacted will ask them. This has failed 4 times now according to the Times and why do they keep trying? There must be a reason and I would imagine it is the almighty tax dollar.

There is an important meeting tomorrow night and if you know anyone that should attend please pass it on. If you are a local Realtor please tell your associates and stay informed. It is at 7:00 PM at the East Lake Country Club. From the ELW website it is described as:

The City of Oldsmar will host a Town Hall Meeting for residents of ELW to answer questions regarding annexation.  The meeting will be held at the ELW Country Club Clubhouse.

The link is here.

One of the proposed benefits of annexation by Oldsmar is brought up in attachment A in documents given to the Fire District. Nothing like having a say in government.

The attachment can be downloaded Attachment A

That all sounds good, but then there is this comment raised at the Oldsmar City Council meeting.

From the Oldsmar City meeting on August 5th 2008 this was brought up on page 1 of the minutes.

Jerry Walters, 1108 Robinwood Drive – referred to recent newspaper articles regarding the
possibility of annexing East Lake Woodlands and stated that it would double the size of the City. He
expressed concern that this might result in a great number of people from East Lake Woodlands running
for City Council and suggested changes be made so that 3 of the Council Seats represent specific areas,
with 1 at-large member plus the Mayor. Ronecker replied that the Council has not taken any formal
action on the annexation. The area consists of 6,000 people and 56 different Homeowner Associations.
Walters asked what other communities besides East Lake Woodlands are being considered. Haddock
replied they are Brookers Landing and El Pasado. Full text download

The East Lake Fire District has its concerns and they are the ones that come to our neighborhood. Here is a link to their site which has more information on this story.vClick for the Fire District

The St. Pete Times broke this story in July when Oldsmar announced its land grab attempt.

Oldsmar itches to grow

By Theresa Blackwell, Times Staff Writer
In print: Tuesday, July 22, 200

Undeterred by four failed attempts to annex unincorporated West Oldsmar, Oldsmar is looking westward once again.

This time Oldsmar hopes to bring the East Lake Woodlands, Brookers Landing and El Pasado subdivisions into the city limits, as well as the Shoppes of Boot Ranch and East Lake Woodlands shopping centers.

“The city of Oldsmar has changed,” said Mayor Jim Ronecker. “It’s a great, progressive city that has a lot to offer its residents.”

For the full story visit

Will Palm Harbor Become a City?

UPDATE – 11/08/2008
Palm Harbor Incorporation News has its own page - visit it here-

Original post

Will Palm Harbor Become a City?

In case you are not aware, there is a push to turn Palm Harbor into a City. We are now one step closer to is and for more information visit the Palm Harbor Coalition’s website. The two questions I would raise would be, how can taxes not go up when we add another layer of government and what the benefit really be? Would we, as residents benefit, or is it only benefiting the people that have time to push the bill.

From the website:

Palm Harbor – The Greater Palm Harbor Community Coalition submitted the Final Feasibility Report & Town Charter in the form of a local bill to the Pinellas County Legislative Delegation on December 10, 2007. The bill is sponsored by State Representative Peter Nehr and co-sponsored by State Representative Tom Anderson. The Feasibility Study and Town Charter was also submitted to the Pinellas County Commission the same week.

The public may view the Final Feasibility Study and Town Charter on the website www.palmharborcoalition.org. The website features a discussion forum and guest book for interested citizens. “We want to provide an easy forum in this high tech world that would allow for the most amount of discussion on the subject of incorporation so that we can all make an educated decision,” states Lesley Klein whose business, Oak Trail Books, is sponsoring the site.

palm harbor charter document